Knee replacement surgery methods and knee joint prostheses are known in the art. A typical knee joint prosthesis includes a rounded femoral component that is attached to the distal portion of the femur, and a tibial component, which may be formed of a single piece or from two separate pieces that are joined together, that is attached to the proximal portion of the tibia. The femoral component rides on the exposed surface of the tibial component, replicating natural knee movement as closely as possible. When such knee replacement surgery is performed, an incision is made to expose the knee joint in order to enable removal of both the proximal portion of the tibia and the distal portion of the femur, which creates surfaces upon which the tibial and femoral components of the knee prosthesis can be attached.
In certain situations, additional portions of the tibia, other than the relatively narrow proximal portion being removed during knee replacement surgery, may also be damaged by arthritis or other problems. In such situations, a relatively thick proximal portion of the tibia is often removed, and it is replaced with an augment block shaped like the bone that has been removed. However, such previously known methods often result in the removal of an unnecessary amount of healthy bone, along with the damaged bone. Thus, for example, even in cases where the peripheral bone was healthy, and only the internal bone was damaged, prior art methods often removed both the healthy peripheral bone and the damaged internal bone